BP in talks to sell Alaska interests

July 11, 2010 10:32 AM

BP is reportedly in talks to sell its Prudhoe Bay assets.

This appears to be an attempt to raise money to defray the costs of cleaning up the Gulf spill. BP consolidated the Prudhoe Bay field in 2000 by acguiring ARCO's West Coast assets. They've had their share of difficulties there as well.

(Full disclosure: I work in the business in this field, but not directly for BP.)

posted by Nabubrush (35 comments total)

"... $10 billion pounds ..."

Eh?
posted by pyrex at 10:53 AM on July 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

British Petroleum, pyrex.
posted by ryanrs at 10:58 AM on July 11, 2010

Ah yes the old British dollarspounds. Thanks for clearing that up ryanrs.
posted by thirteenkiller at 11:03 AM on July 11, 2010 [27 favorites]

I think maybe the issue there was the "$" designation combined with the "pounds".
posted by Nabubrush at 11:03 AM on July 11, 2010

So should I be buying or selling my shares in NASDAQ:MEFI?
posted by furtive at 11:10 AM on July 11, 2010

Anyway, is this what DOJ was worried about? Could BP dump US assets to avoid US judgments against it?
posted by thirteenkiller at 11:10 AM on July 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

Using the dollar sign in front of a figure of pounds is definitely editorially gauche. Especially with London as a dateline.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:14 AM on July 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

I bid five bucks.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:22 AM on July 11, 2010

No no, it means "10 billion pounds of dollars." That's 4.5 million tons in metric!
posted by No-sword at 11:22 AM on July 11, 2010 [16 favorites]

Isn't it inevitable that the company will be completely broken up and sold? There's no value in the brand obviously.
posted by bhnyc at 11:34 AM on July 11, 2010

Isn't it inevitable that the company will be completely broken up and sold? There's no value in the brand obviously.
no.The only way it gets broken up is in bankruptcy and there was never any value in the brand.

They are selling mature assets to raise cash. This was sort of a known thing. This and the North Sea upstream stuff are the most obvious sale candidates.
posted by JPD at 11:40 AM on July 11, 2010

It's clearly 10 billion dollars worth of £1 coins. At present that's £6,634,599,125.48. I can afford the 48p, wonder who will pick up the rest.

Btw, Nabubrush, sorry for derailing right off the bat.
posted by pyrex at 11:42 AM on July 11, 2010

Maybe the firm should diversify a bit, and really start thinking beyond petroleum.
posted by el io at 11:56 AM on July 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

I bid five bucks.

Same as in town.
posted by fixedgear at 12:02 PM on July 11, 2010 [3 favorites]

el io, BP is often characterized as "the world's largest solar energy company", but I'm not certain what the metrics used are. Per wiki, they're also one of the largest generators of wind power. Of course, these interests may be sold off as well.

pyrex, no worries. First FPP y'all! (After three and a half years - I hope I'm not thread-modding too much.)
posted by Nabubrush at 12:09 PM on July 11, 2010

Nabubrush, BP's interest in alternative energy seems to date back to the pre Tony Hayward era:

2007 Signalled his intention to abandon the "Beyond Petroleum" mantra of his predecessor in a speech at Stanford University in which he said too many people at BP were "trying to save the world".

One gets the distinct impression Mr. Hayward has been working to fix this bug.
posted by localroger at 12:28 PM on July 11, 2010

BP's paid less than half of claims
posted by homunculus at 12:30 PM on July 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

One gets the distinct impression Mr. Hayward has been working to fix this bug.

Working? I'd say he's done a pretty good job!
posted by delmoi at 12:32 PM on July 11, 2010

Apparently, BP's saving money other ways: if fisherfolks chose not to take part in the oil spill cleanup, BP considers that as potential income declined and deducts it from their claims.
posted by kipmanley at 12:49 PM on July 11, 2010 [4 favorites]

A heck of a job, one might say, demloi.
posted by amethysts at 12:57 PM on July 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

Thanks for clearing that up ryanrs.

So "Eh?" wasn't confusion, but rather lukewarm units snark?
posted by ryanrs at 1:39 PM on July 11, 2010

Yeah ryan I think so, sorry.
posted by thirteenkiller at 2:59 PM on July 11, 2010

delmoi, one might even say he's done a heckuva job.
posted by localroger at 3:20 PM on July 11, 2010

Working? I'd say he's done a pretty good job!

You bet your sweet BP.
posted by Evilspork at 3:25 PM on July 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

no.The only way it gets broken up is in bankruptcy and there was never any value in the brand.

There is negative value in the brand now. All of it's assets would be worth more sold to other companies. Bankruptcy is an eventual possibility too.
posted by bhnyc at 4:35 PM on July 11, 2010

BP's paid less than half of claims

There's a lot of talk about what BP might allot to this "escrow" fund, but little, if anything, about what will ever get paid out, assuming the fund ever gets set up. ExxonMobil still has not paid out for the damage it caused in Alaska, and the victims have been in court for a couple decades, now.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:21 PM on July 11, 2010

Yeah Blazecock, I feel like anything BP does has to be interpreted as a move to avoid paying damage claims.

But I'd like to see the link you really meant.
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:40 PM on July 11, 2010

they make their money in the upstream pure commodity business. The value of the brand is irrelevant. I don't get why its assets are worth more sold to other companies. That makes no sense. Of course bankruptcy is a possibility.
posted by JPD at 7:02 PM on July 11, 2010

Okay, after the delightful dollarspound derail, I was hoping that someone would calculate how many dollars there are if you had 10 billion pounds of them. Alas, no one did, and I was still curious, so I decided to figure it out myself. I'll just put it here in case anyone else was curious.

One dollar (or any US currency note) = Approximately 1 gram

453.59237 grams in a pound

453.59237 x 10,000,000,000 = 4,535,923,700,000

So 10 billion $£ is 4,535,923,700,000 dollars, which is less than I expected it to be.

Sorry for the further derail. Now back to talking about BP.
posted by wander at 7:54 PM on July 11, 2010

NYT article with a little more info.
posted by Nabubrush at 8:24 PM on July 11, 2010

This disaster has a silver lining for US citizens. Privatizing Social Security will be off of the table for a while.
At the expense of Brit pensioners.
posted by vapidave at 9:03 PM on July 11, 2010

There is negative value in the brand now

Even aside from BP being (as JPD says) in a commodity business where the brand isn't that important, the average gasoline buyer would never make the connection between a new "Itishbray Etroleumpay" company and BP.
posted by hattifattener at 12:44 AM on July 12, 2010

BP Rumormill Update: Sunday Times Reports Exxon And Chevron Receive Green Light From Obama To Plot Takeover

U.S. oil major Exxon has sought clearance from Washington DC to examine a takeover bid for BP PLC (BP.LN), according to the Sunday Times.

According to oil industry sources, the Obama administration had told Exxon and one other U.S. oil company, thought to be Chevron, that it would not stand in the way of a deal that could value BP at up to GBP100 billion, the newspaper said.

posted by kimyo at 2:07 AM on July 12, 2010

If BP winds up getting bought by ExM they better give Obama a big fucking raise. Because that's a huge W.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:15 AM on July 12, 2010

Okay, so as noted if you don’t work for BP, the money you supposedly could’ve made is deducted from your claim as income you turned down.

And if you do work for BP, well, the money you did make is, well, deducted from your claim as income.

Which, I suppose, in some ledgers, seems fair and equitable. —Presumably any quarters left by the Tooth Fairy under the pillows of the children of Gulf fisherfolk will also be deducted from their claims as income, &c.
posted by kipmanley at 10:49 AM on July 17, 2010